Tang Fei Liu smiled gratefully. Wei-yong tried not to compare the wealthy merchant's daughter's fine robes with her own threadbare, stained travel furs. The two women still looked a lot like, but they were very, very different
"The wedding is tomorrow, and of course my family has no house in Hsiao-pei-ho, so I and my ladies-in-waiting are staying at the Inn of the Fabled Stone. If you would be so terribly kind, ladies, to join us there, it would be a great honour."
Shan spoke, her furrowed brow indicating intense thought.
"You want us to become ladies-in-waiting?"
"No, no," Fei Liu waved a delicately jeweled set of fingers, "For tonight, the night before the wedding. I would be terribly honoured if you would be my bridal guards for this night."
Shan sighed in relief. Fa nodded.
"I see. This is one of those charming rustic customs where the bride sits secluded while everyone in town tries to get into her room. And we fight them off."
Fei Liu laughed.
"I'm sure there won't be any need for fighting. The people of Hsiao-pei-ho are good, kind people. It's all in fun, of course, but I would be very honoured."
Ming-Wa stepped forward and bowed stiffly.
"The honour is ours, Miss Tang. We will perform our duty as the Goddess commands."
"Of course, ladies, we will be pleased to provide your food and drink and a room at the inn for yourselves as well."
Shan and Wei-Yong brightened up considerably.
"As the Goddess commands."
*****
"This is the best job ever."
Shan held up a cup of wine and shared a grin with Wei-Yong. They sat with Ming-Wa and Fa at the foot of a staircase leading up to the balcony that circled the main room of the Inn of the Fabled Stone. The inn was packed with merrymakers in advance of the big wedding, and loud singing and the pounding of drunken fists more or less in time gave the place a festive atmosphere.
So far, nobody had troubled them or tried to get past them. The innkeeper grinned as he rolled another big ceramic jug of wine out from the storeroom. He'd been doing this steadily all night, and the sound of the paper seals breaking every time a table opened another came regularly through the din.
The Inn of Fabled Stone was constructed of heavy beams and pillars, with a high ceiling lost in a haze of smoke and dangling banners. Rough chandeliers creaked from oily ropes, swaying in the drunken roar of the crowd.
Wei-Yong stood up to stretch, leaning her lanky frame against the rough-hewn banister.
"You sure are tall."
She turned and looked down at the fellow who'd spoken.
"You sure are small."
"Ho Sien Ku. Hi. You wanna go somewhere?"
"What?"
"Somewhere. Anywhere."
"No. Go away, small person."
"I got songbirds."
"I'm not hungry."
Sien Ku stared at the tall woman in the rather wild furs and grinned.
"You're my kind of crazy, lady."
"Go away."
"I'll come back later."
Wei-Yong growled as the jaunty little fellow strolled off. Shan watched him go, considering.
"He's not, you know, ugly."
Wei-Yong gave her friend a glare.
"He doesn't even come up to my shoulder."
"Well, when you're lying down -- "
"Shan!"
Both women chuckled. They looked up as two women approached, and heard Ming-Wa and Fa stand up behind them. These were big women, broad-shouldered and heavy-set. Both carried two big jugs of wine, still sealed with paper across the mouths. They grinned at Shan and Wei-Yong, set all the jugs down and then one of the women picked up one and, eyeing Wei-Yong with a challenging glower, punched the seal open. The bar went almost completely silent, except for one young fellow still singing the chorus of "The Prettiest Maid".
"Where is my maid, my prettiest maid, where has my maid gone?"
Wei-Yong lifted her chin.
"A drinking contest, huh?"
She reached down and picked up a jug. It was heavy, sloshing with wine. She reached into the quiver that hung at her hip and yanked out an arrow. Flipping the shaft around in one hand, she stabbed it point-first through the seal and into the wine.
Her mouth opened as she withdrew the shaft and she caught the wine dripping off the arrowhead on her tongue. She considered. She grinned at her challenger.
And she passed the jug to Shan.
The challenger's glower lost a lot of its challenge as Shan easily hefted the jug, tilting it up over her head. Wine cascaded down into her open mouth.
Caught off guard, the other woman hurriedly followed Shan's example.
"I have no breakfast, my table's not laid, somebody tell me what's happened to my maid?"
For a few seconds, everyone in the bar (except the soloist who moved on to the third verse) watched as the two big women gulped wine. Wei-Yong grinned. She'd won nearly as much money on Shan's drinking as Shan had won on Wei-Yong's archery. Ming-Wa watched in testy disapproval, and Fa kept her eyes on the crowd, ignoring the contest.
The local woman put up a good fight, but Shan was still going strong when her rival coughed, spluttered, and put the half-empty jug down, shaking her head. The bar erupted in cheers and yells of outrage, and coins changed hands all around.
Shan paid no notice. She kept going until she'd finished the first jug, set it down, picked up the other and turned to the second woman.
"You ready?"
Wei-Yong, seeing Ming-Wa's disapproval, leaned over and spoke quietly.
"We all serve the Goddess in our ways, Ming-Wa."
The soloist finished his warbling tune.
"And your maid will never come home...."
After the second woman had also stumbled backwards, unable to keep up with Shan's spectacular capacity, the big swordswoman grinned. She passed the half-empty jugs to Wei-Yong, who did her best. Soon they were singing "The Prettiest Maid" themselves.
"This is the best job ever."
"Couple of ladies like you two shouldn't be working at all."
Shan and Wei-Yong turned at the smooth, cultured voice. And raised their eyebrows in unison at the two well-dressed young men smiling at them. Shan nudged Wei-Yong.
"You can have the tall one."
Both women grinned with such excited glee that the young men stepped back a bit.
"So," drawled Wei-Yong, "We shouldn't be working? Couple of--" she bowed elaborately to Shan, "ladies like us?"
Shan attempted to bow back. Given her size, her armour and her intoxication, it was spectacular, if not entirely successful.
The men looked at each other, gathering their courage.
"Why don't you come with us? We've got cash. Enough for a good time."
Wei-Yong waved a finger at them.
"No. No sir. We're guarding. What's 'er name, looks like me. Tang. Miss Tang. Little Miss Merchant Tang. Wee Little -- Ouch."
Wei-Yong frowned as Ming-Wa cracked her one across the skull.
"Hey. Shan. Ming-Wa's hitting me."
"That's because you're drunk, Wei-Yong."
"M'not."
"Sir, does she look drunk to you?"
The young men drew themselves up as though it were time for them to assert some control over the situation.
"We are prepared to offer you ladies a sizeable sum of money if you will vacate the stairs temporarily."
Shan crossed her arms as Wei-Yong slumped against the railing.
"Not happening, handsome. But you can sit right here next to me, if you like."
"Gems?"
"Nope."
"Gold cloth?"
"Nothing doing."
"An estate in the valley?"
"Pass on by, buddy."
"Is there anything you'd like?"
Wei-Yong perked up.
"How about a dance, cutie?"
"What?"
The startled young man found himself with nearly six feet of drunk Wei-Yong in his arms before he'd registered the question. Shan watched with approval.
"Hey, look at them go. She's got moves, that girl."
Fa chuckled at the sight. Wei-Yong was all arms and legs, stumbling and laughing but somehow managing to keep circling to the music. Seeing her example, patrons all across the jug-room leapt to their feet and in seconds the place was a madhouse of sudden clattering dance steps as the band raised their volume and their tempo, and soon everyone was whirling and stomping around the room.
Shan grabbed the other fellow and swept him into the crowd, keeping close to the stairs but otherwise enjoying herself. Fa grinned to notice the young man's feet seemingly suspended above the floorboards as Shan whirled him around.
Ming-Wa tapped one slippered foot, her face as serious and composed as ever.
That dance finished and another one started, and another, and eventually Wei-Yong and Shan returned to the steps, laughing and heaving with their exertions.
"Ming-Wa, you ought to dance sometime. You could use it."
Ming-Wa sniffed.
"I do as the Goddess commands. Bless her always."
The others mumbled, "Bless her always," in response.
"For servants of the Goddess, you are very shabbily dressed. But then I suppose you really are little more than peasant girls with aspirations, aren't you?"
The four women looked up from where they sat on the steps to see a heavy-set woman in fine silk robes sneering down at them.
"Pao Hsien, tailor. I can have fine new clothes ready for you all tomorrow morning if you will stand aside."
Ming-Wa stood up.
"The Goddess abhors vanity."
"Does she really? Funny how everyone makes such a big point about how beautiful she is, then."
The other three stood up, anger darkening their features. Ming-Wa raised an accusing finger.
"Do not dare to speak ill of the Goddess."
"No, no, of course not. Now, about these new clothes. You cannot deny you require new clothes." The woman sneered. "Rather desperately, I'd say."
Ming-Wa glowered. Fa shook her head with a smile.
"Our apologies, Madam Tailor, but our duty demands we stay here. Thank you for your offer."
The tailor sniffed and returned to the crowd. The four grinned at each other.
"Fools!"
Fa turned in time to see six black-clad figures plunging through the crowd towards them. Pao Hsien stood across the room, pointing at them.
"You serve evil incarnate, you twisted fools! You will burn with your foul mistress in the fires of hell when we are done with you!"
Shan's grin broadened.
"This is the best job ever."
*****
Usually, at the sudden appearance of onrushing doom, Wei-Yong and Shan would react with immediate and unequivocal results.
This time, intoxicated as they were, their reactions, while immediate, were not quite as effective as usual.
Wei-Yong fumbled with her bow, dropped it, smacked her head on the railing and collapsed on the stairs in an ungainly tangle of limbs, groaning.
Shan looked around at the incoming assailants and put up her fists, ignoring the flashing knives in their hands.
Ming-Wa, unable to ignore the knives, grabbed her big friend and heaved with all her strength, trying to drag Shan backwards. And having no effect whatsoever. Shan, unaware that Ming-Wa was clinging to her armour, leaned forward, lifting the slender woman right off the ground. Ming-Wa's slippers dangled above the floorboards as she kicked, trying to get Shan to notice her.
Li Fa raced to the top of the stairs, trying to put some distance between her friends and herself before she called upon the dark hungry power that served her will. Whirling up on the balcony, she looked down into the large common area to see four assailants come leaping through the crowd towards the others. And two clambering up the pillars to where she stood, alone.
Ming-Wa dropped from her friend's shoulders and scrambled back as Shan lurched forward, shrugging her armoured shoulders and raising her arms to catch the slashing blades on the reinforced plates that protected her. The sudden din of metal on metal drowned out the cries of the crowd, which made the explosive grunt of the first fellow to receive one of Shan's fists in his gut all the more penetrating. He went down, unconscious, while Shan continued to fend off the other three.
Wei-Yong shook her addled head and saw the two climbing towards Fa.
"I'm coming, Li Fa!"
She staggered up the steps and leapt up onto the railing to get a better angle against the two men clinging below.
Her balance was not up to its usual standards, however, and her long legs flew out from under her and she crashed down on to the balcony planks, smacking her head hard again.
"Ow."
Seeing she was not about to be rescued, Li Fa set about smacking her would-be assailants with her oaken staff as they tried to climb over the balcony railing. Shouts of pain followed as her sturdy staff cracked sharply across hairy knuckles, and wailing, the two unfortunates plunged into the crowd below, demolishing tables and disappearing into a mass of drunken, angry patrons.
Wei-Yong got woozily to her feet, grinned at Li Fa, and then caught sight of her friend Shan with three knife-wielding bad guys around her.
"I'm coming, Shan!"
Fa watched as the lanky woman leapt from the balcony to snatch at a hanging banner.
"Try not to kick too much butt, girl."
Fa winced as her friend lost her grip and with a strangled yelp plummetted into the crowd.
But watched, bemused, as the drunken woman bounced to her feet, sprang over half-a-dozen brawling regulars, and swung a broken chair leg at one of Shan's attackers. The wood connected with the man's knife and sent it flying to embed itself in a pillar next to Shan's head. Startled, Shan appeared to notice for the first time that her opponents were armed, and with very little fuss, set about taking their knives away.
The surprised assassins had only a second or so to gape at their suddenly empty hands before Shan's fists began connecting sharply with their jaws. And, shortly thereafter, their skulls connected sharply with the floorboards.
Li Fa, standing up on the balcony, flicked a copper coin at a woozy thug as he tried to stand up.
"Go back to your mistress. Maybe she'll sell you some better clothes."
Shan grinned as she helped a reeling Wei-Yong to stay on her feet.
"This is the best job ever."
*****
"You seem taller in the sunlight."
"Not so loud, please."
Wei-Yong winced as her small admirer, Ho Sien Ku, kept up a stream of noisy compliments alongside her.
The four women (and one small man) had joined a massive procession as Tang Fei Liu and her bridal party made their way to the Temple of the Submissive Eye. Most of the town had come out to join the celebrations, and the long parade wound up through the steep streets of Hsiao-pei-ho from the Inn of the Fabled Stone, where less-energetic celebrants still remained, drinking what little of the landlord's stock had survived the night's debauchery.
Li Fa, taking pity on her hung-over friend, crossed to where Ho Sien Ku was. She addressed him gravely.
"Who was that woman last night? The tailor?"
Ming-Wa joined in, her face set in repressed fury.
"Is she an enemy of the Goddess?"
Sien Ku obviously didn't quite know how to take the very serious and intense queries addressed to him. He bowed, stumbling a little as he tried to keep up with the longer-legged women.
"Your ladyships. The tailor? Pao Hsien? I, I wouldn't know, your ladyships. She's very wealthy, I know. They say foreigners visit her sometimes."
"What kind of foreigners? What about?"
Li Fa put a restraining hand on her friend. Ming-Wa narrowed her eyes at the short Sien Ku, her anger at the notion that anyone could disregard her beloved Goddess apparent on her face.
"I don't know. I don't know. It's just, just what people say. I don't know."
Sien Ku looked longingly at where Wei-Yong walked with Tong Shan. Li Fa took pity on the man and asked a less accusatory question.
"What else have people been saying?"
She smiled. Li Fa smiled very rarely, her usual expression being one of stern patience. But she offered the trepidatious Sien Ku a warm smile that made her seem ten years younger than usual, and he relaxed a fair bit.
"Well, they say that Caedmonish bandits have been coming down from the mountain passes and kidnapping the children."
"What children?"
"The children who've been disappearing."
"Children have been disappearing?"
"Yes, for a while now."
"Who's been taking them?"
"Bandits from Caedmon."
"Hm."
The women slowed, along with the townspeople around them, as they came up over a rise in the street and caught sight of the temple, situated on a broad lawn of carefully-trimmed grass, overlooking the river where it tumbled along in its rocky bed. The Temple of the Submissive Eye stood a full three stories high, open on all sides, surrounding a massive statue of the Goddess in all her glory. The upper floors of the temple were open galleries running around all sides of the statue as it rose up to nearly touch the roof of the temple itself. Through arches the statue could be seen, blinding with gold and color. All along the eaves at each floor hung brightly coloured bells with long streamers that caught the wind and set the bells ringing in an unending musical chatter that rang out over the nearby streets.
Shan, Ming-Wa, Wei-Yong and Fa all bowed their heads and made an obeisance, breathing prayers to their cherished Goddess.
Half the city seemed to be pouring into the temple grounds, greeting the elderly Chief Sister with familiar waves. Yan Ting bowed and waved back, wrinkled face beaming. She caught sight of the Angels and hurried over, bowing incessantly.
"Ladies, ladies, ladies! Welcome! The Submissive Eye welcomes the blessed agents of Her Glorious Dedication."
Ming-Wa sank to her knees on the grass and bowed.
"The Bended Knee thanks the Submissive Eye. All praise to Her Infinite Beauty."
Li Fa did likewise.
"The Gentle Hand thanks the Submissive Eye. All praise to Her Endless Compassion."
Wei-Yong and Shan remained standing, but bowed. They mumbled in unison, "The Fierce Heart thanks the Submissive Eye. All praise to Her Unbounded Will."
All five women spoke in ritual.
"Body and Heart and Mind we serve thee, Goddess. Body and Heart and Mind."
Straightening up, Ming-Wa regarded the temple, rapidly filling up with townspeople, with satisfaction. She smiled.
"It's a beautiful temple, Sister Yan. You honour Her well."
The old lady bowed, pleased, and led the four women up the exterior steps and into the ground floor of the temple.
From here, the statue towered above, the Goddess' perfect face smiling down in serene grace on all the worshippers clustered around her feet. Overcome with religious fervour, Ming-Wa sank to her knees again and sang a prayer of thanksgiving. Wei-Yong and Shan and Fa looked around.
There were many Sisterhoods in service to the Goddess, each with its own traditions and means of expressing devotion. The Submissive Eye was one such, common in rural communities, usually building and tending temples much like this one, though none of the Angels had seen one quite so grandiose. The pillars and beams were decorated with intricate filigree, the railings bright and multi-colored and joyous. The floor where Ming-Wa knelt was formed of well-set marble blocks, polished to a mirror-like finish and inlaid with silver and gold in Tianese characters expressing love and thanks towards the Goddess.
Townspeople milled about, pressed together in their desire to watch the ceremony. Ming-Wa had to stand to avoid being crushed in the crowd. Above them, on the first balcony, facing the statue, knelt Tang Fei Liu and Xue Li. Beside them stood Uncle Tan, who would be performing the marriage ceremony itself. He opened his mouth to speak to the crowd below.
Before he could speak, the floor shook and with a sudden, splintering crack that seemed to shake even the massive statue of the Goddess, heavy marble blocks flew into the air, plunging earthward and crushing wedding guests before they could scream.
Once the demonic beasts, their clawed feet scraping on the stone and their long foreclaws dripping with foul ichor, pulled themselves out of the smoking hole in the floor, there was plenty of time of screaming.
*****
Shan's sword sang with apparent bloodlust as she yanked it free of its sheath. Between where the Angels stood and where the beasts clawed themselves free of the torn-up floor milled hundreds of suddenly terrified villagers, just beginning to surge back from the horrors that had so suddenly erupted in their midst.
Wei-Yong's reactions were a little more aplomb-filled than they had been last night. She strung her bow without a thought and sent a couple of shafts whizzing right through the heaving crowd, just missing heads and nearly slicing an ear off before striking one of the beasts right in its throat.
It gurgled, spraying blood over the crowd, but didn't appear otherwise dissuaded by her efforts. Claws tore into defenseless villagers and the temple exploded with screams as the wedding guests, packed tightly around the feet of the Goddess' statue, began pouring out, stumbling among each other in their desperation to get free.
Shan brandished her sword and howled. As panic-sticken and terrified as they were, the fleeing guests somehow managed to clear an aisle between her and the creatures. Shan charged.
Even as she reached the knot of ugly beasts, two of them leapt straight upwards, dangling for a second from the balcony before pulling themselves up with long wiry arms. She plowed into the three that were left and steel flashed, claws tore and Tianese oaths began to spiral up into the temple air.
Li Fa pushed her way through the crowd, looking for a clear space where she could call upon the Shadow Realm to power her sorcery. Ming-Wa realised the two creatures on the second floor were closing in on Tang Fei Liu and Xue Li and stretched out one hand, pressing the other to her brow in concentration. There was a flash of shimmering violet, and the two creatures staggered as some unseen force pummelled them, shaking the temple beams and sending dust and paint flecks flying.
Shan hollered and laid about her in all directions, slashing madly at any leathery, wrinkled, claw-festooned limb she saw. Heavy blows knocked her from side to side, but she got her shoulders and hips into one cut and tore one creature's abdomen open. It collapsed, writhing and shrieking.
Shan's gleeful triumph turned to frustration as another of the creatures grabbed hold of her sword and sent it flying. Undaunted, the big woman took hold of the powerful beast and drove it down into the tiles, ignoring the slashing claws and talons of the third.
As wedding guests careened out of the temple, Li Fa found empty space easier to come by. She spun, her heavy robes twisting around her, and clenched her fists as she concentrated on the two creatures upstairs. Dark mist swirled up and suddenly sucked back into the ground as up above, searing flames erupted around the stunned beasts. One stumbled free, howling with pain, but the other could only shriek in its high, inhuman voice as the sorcerous flames peeled the skin from its flesh.
The surviving beast leapt up to the third level, intent on getting past Fa's barrier of flame and attack the wedding couple. It teetered on the railing, some thirty feet above the temple floor, near the height of the statue's shoulders.
Wei-Yong, bent backward to get the angle right, sighted and let fly.
The teetering beast froze for a second, suddenly sprouting a feathered shaft from the underside of its mouth. It fell from its unsteady perch and plunged straight down in a tangled ball of arms and legs to crash right next to Shan.
Covered in gore and with her armour scored and seared by powerful claws, Shan got wearily to her feet with the remaining creature's head caught in a tight hold. As the others watched, she wrenched hard and with a very loud crack, the beast went limp and she dropped it to the tiles.
A sudden black smoke boiled out of the creatures and every drop of blood they'd shed, and in only a heartbeat or so, there was no sign of them except the torn flagstones and the marks on Shan's armour. The four women looked around the now-deserted temple. Three mangled bodies of unfortunate villagers lay motionless. From above, the wedding couple looked down in mute horror.
Wei-Yong spoke with her usual quiet drawl.
"I can hardly wait for the reception."
Li Fa was looking down the hole the things had come out of.
"There's something down here. Stairs, it looks like."
Ming-Wa bustled over.
"Stairs? Where do they go?"
Fa looked over at her friend, expressionless.
"They go down."
Mau Li, Wei-Yong's massive wolf, growled deep in her throat, bristling at the exposed stairway. All four of the women drew closer together as they peered into the darkness below. Wei-Yong knelt beside her canine companion and stroked the big animal's ruff.
"She smells blood. Down there."
Li Fa caught sight of the elderly Sister responsible for the temple, Yan Ting, watching them fearfully from a temple entrance. Her dark eyes flashed with anger as she gestured the old woman forward.
The Sisterhoods of the Goddess all served Her in their own ways, but there was a definite hierarchy between them. And there was no question that the Sisterhood of the Submissive Eye ranked well below the organizations the Angels belonged to. Yan Ting scurried forward, bowing and mumbling prayers to Her glory.
Fa was not inclined to be gracious.
"What's this? What is this beneath this temple?"
The old woman gaped in astonishment.
"I've never seen such a thing. I can't imagine--"
"Sister, if you know anything about this, I charge you in Her holy name to tell us now."
"By the beauty of Her presence, I've never seen it before. I cannot tell you anything about it, as She may witness."
Ming-Wa, burning with indignation, pointed to the bodies.
"You must clean this immediately! Those poor people should be buried here in Her hallowed ground, and this whole temple rededicated once it has been cleansed! This is sacrilege!"
Shan and Wei-Yong shared a look, shrugged and started down the steps. Ming-Wa noticed.
"Where are you going?"
"Down."
*****
Beneath the temple, Ming-Wa's outrage only increased. A long hall lined with votive statuettes revealed blasphemy; the tiny figures of the Goddess had been defaced with crude, lascivious markings, smeared with blood and other, less seemly, substances.
All four women fumed with righteous anger. They had spent their lives in the service of the Goddess, had seen with their own eyes again and again how Her strength and compassion had benefitted the world. To see Her image so degraded, so fouled, offended them deeply.
They made their way down the subterranean hall, passing countless statuettes of their beloved Goddess, every one made to represent a mockery of the purity and beauty the Angels worshipped.
At last the flickering of Ming-Wa's torch revealed a door ahead. Mau Li bristled again but did not growl. Wei-Yon put up a hand for silence and closed her eyes, concentrating.
"Crying."
Shan's eyes widened.
"The children?"
The doors flew open as Tong Shan drove forward and stumbled into a wide chamber, a prayer hall of a type the Angels knew well, but transformed into a foul torture chamber. All of the women gagged on the stench of blood, rot and waste. The room held two rows of pedestals, each a little taller than Wei-Yong, and each supporting a complex array of rusted chains from which hung emaciated children.
The children were grey and mottled, their eyesockets empty, accusing holes. The sound of crying filled the room, but these children would never be able to weep. They were obviously dead, hanging half-rotted from their chains.
Horrified beyond speech, the women moved into the room. Sacred murals had been defaced, made grotesque and shocking with foul depictions of the Goddess. The stench increased and the sound of sobbing remained.
Shan ran to one of the bodies, rattling at the chains in an attempt to free the dead child from its shackles. Ming-Wa did likewise.
Fa and Wei-Yong, looking around themselves in shock, moved further into the room. They did not notice as the hung corpses raised their decaying heads and grinned.
Shan and Ming-Wa both did, but before they could cry out, the corpses they'd been trying to free convulsed and tore open with a sickening wrench. Horrid ropes of intestines and organs flopped around the startled women and dragged them forward into a foul embrace, where undead jaws tore at them and clawlike hands scrabbled against their backs.
Shan swore. Ming-Wa screamed. For a second, Li Fa and Wei-Yong could only stare, horrified. They realised the other corpses were reaching towards them, straining against the chains holding them against the pedestals. Their friends were half-buried in putrefying flesh, struggling to free themselves.
"Fools. You think you serve beauty. You are servants of foulness. Of evil. Of putrescence."
The two women whirled to find a grinning skeletal creature with blazing eyes and a mammoth axe.
"Says you."
Wei-Yong nocked and arrow and was about to let fly, but for once she wasn't fast enough. The fearsome axe flashed out and scored a deep gash in the tall woman's upper arm, biting to the bone and knocking her against a nearby pedestal. Wei-Yong groaned and slumped to her knees.
Her friends were all too near her. Fa looked up at the undead creature preparing its axe for another blow and gritted her teeth.
She called upon the Shadow Realm, but no tendrils of blackness rose about her. Instead, she allowed the kiss of Shadow to travel right up her spine, its cold emptiness at first thrilling her with the power of the void, but then penetrating into her, tearing at her very being. Ruthlessly she ignored the certain death climbing up inside her. Through supreme effort of her will she kept the deadly touch of Shadow from expanding, drawing the power she needed even as her life force began to ebb away with unrelenting agony.
Wei-Yong looked up at her stern friend, even in the haze of pain from her wound able to see the tears on Fa's face as she resisted the hungry destructiveness of Shadow and bent it to her needs. The flagstones erupted at her feet as a roaring energy surged across the room to strike the mocking guardian, sending it flying in an explosion of stone and dust.
Now Fa sank to her knees. Wei-Yong struggled to find her bow in the dark chaos, driving herself to her feet as she heard the undead warrior doing the same not far off.
Ming-Wa, choking on the rotting ichor of the dead child, called upon the vital power of her mind and unleashed a blast of purifying energy that disintegrated not only the thing clutching at her, but the others chained up further down the hall.
Shan still struggled with the one holding her, heaving against the pedestal in a vain effort to tear herself free. Animated entrails sucked at her, wrapping themselves ever more tightly around her arms and her torso. She pressed her hands against the pedestal and strained, groaning as she tried to free herself.
Ming-Wa saw her friend's plight and shook her head.
"Your sword, Shan."
"Oh, right."
One cut was enough to dismember the unholy thing and Shan staggered back. She and Ming-Wa heard a shriek from the darkness up ahead, and ran forward to help their friends.
The shriek was Fa as she reeled aside from another sweeping blow of the warrior's battleaxe. She ducked around a pedestal and could only hope that none of her friends were in range. Trying again to contain Shadow within herself would surely kill her, so she let its hungry darkness swirl free as it usually did and her disciplined mind flashed through complex calculations.
The floor erupted yet again, but this time black chains burst out of the ruined flagstones, writhing like living things as they rattled around the undead warrior's limbs, pinning him in place.
Wei-Yong at first sighted on one of the empty eyesockets, then shrugged and picked the center of the creature's brow. Its skull shattered with the impact, and all four women sagged in relief. Wei-Yong gripped her injured arm.
"That hurts."
Ming-Wa found her torch, still flickering on the floor, and raised it up again. The chamber now looked as though industrious stone masons had used it to dump the shattered refuse of their work. The floor, once smoothly set, was ruptured and uneven, the flagstones strewn about in disorder. Dust filled the air, swirling about them all.
She spoke with a fervour they all shared.
"Let's go talk to Sister Yan again."
*****
"Something is going on here! These women are stealing our children and feeding them to their Goddess! We have to do something!"
The four Angels clambered out from underneath the temple to find Uncle Tan, who'd seemed so kindly and charming only an hour or so ago, hectoring the crowd of would-be wedding guests about the evils of the Goddess and her servants. Some people were shouting in disagreement, but others were considering the old man's words.
Li Fa caught sight of elderly Sister Yan Ting hovering near Uncle, meekly trying to interrupt his tirade. Face dark with anger, Fa strode over to where the old woman stood.
"Come with me, Sister."
Yan protested a bit but followed the imposing Angel. Ming-Wa had heard Uncle Tan's words and only Shan and Wei-Yong's efforts were keeping her from charging out there and confronting him. Fa walked Yan a ways from the crowd and then whirled on the old woman.
"What in the name of Her holy beauty is going on beneath this temple?"
Yan stammered and spluttered and Fa grabbed the collar of her robe, shaking the old woman in her rage.
"What is going on? You have desecrated statues of the Goddess! Explain yourself!"
Terrified, Yan could only shake her head, gasping out her innocence. Fa threw her back. She lowered her voice so that the crowd around Uncle Tan wouldn't hear her.
"There are children down there. Children who have been murdered and their bodies used for necromatic purposes. What do you know about this?"
"Nothing, Sister, I swear! I know nothing of this! I just tend the temple and keep Her image clean, honestly, I don't know a thing about this..."
Fa glared. Yan shrank in on herself, still protesting that she knew nothing. She was still protesting as Fa turned on her heel and stalked away.
The tall woman strode right past her friends and back downstairs. Wei-Yong looked back and forth between Fa and Yan, and momentarily forgot about Ming-Wa. The furious young woman broke free of Wei-Yong's distracted grip and actually managed to drag Shan forward a few steps, such was the power of her fury as she addressed Uncle Tan.
"Heretic! Liar!"
Shan gave up and let her friend go. Ming-Wa stormed up to Uncle Tan. She was a small woman, but she carried a lot of presence around with her and, angry as she was, she immediately quelled the murmuring crowd. Uncle Tan retreated from her glare. Ming-Wa turned to address the crowd.
"For how many generations has the Goddess watched over us all? For how long have we been blessed with the peace and justice that is her rule? Who are we to deserve such generosity and compassion?"
She whirled on Tan, emphasizing her point with an accusing finger.
"Who are we to doubt and suspect Her love?"
Tan shook his head, unable to respond. She turned back to the crowd.
"This temple has stood here for many long years, offering you all a place to focus your hearts and the love you naturally feel towards Her. To show Her your willingness to serve. For many years the Sisterhood of the Submissive Eye has served you all. But when trouble strikes, you think to blame your loving Goddess? You think suspect Her?"
Tan tried to get a word in.
"But Pao Hsien says -- "
"Pao Hsien? The tailor? That witch spoke against the Goddess?"
Ming-Wa's fury rose to new heights.
"Where is she?"
*****
Fa, bearing a smoky torch, retraced the steps she and her friends had taken among the dark passages beneath the temple. She came into the desecrated worship hall where the torn and horrible corpses of the children remained. Uttering a prayer to Her kindness, Fa knelt, stuck the torch upright in the packed sand of the floor and drew upon her dark power.
Shadows hissed up all around her and she lay her hands on the dead child's brow. Fa's eyes fluttered closed. In the corners of her mind, images arose, fitful and discontented. In a moment they drew together and she saw the room around her, lit with dozens of candles, and before her standing an imposing woman in dark robes. The woman held a long straight razor in one hand and a nameless mass of dripping flesh in the other. She was chanting, though the image was silent. The woman turned and Fa saw her face.
Her eyes closed, alone in the dark, not even Fa was aware of the cold, sinister smile that touched her lips.
"Pao Hsien."
*****
"We have to go talk to -- "
" -- The tailor. I know. She's a Jade Razor."
The other Angels nodded to each other as Fa identified their enemy.
The Jade Razors were a secret organization of foul necromancers and power-hungry warlords, dedicated to spreading chaos and terror throughout the realm of the Goddess. The Angels had crossed paths with this society many times in the past, and rooting out nests of these conspirators was a common task for them.
Shan shrugged.
"Let's go get her."
Fa looked over the others.
"No doubt she's prepared for us. She knows who we are. She must have a plan."
Wei-Yong yawned.
"We've got Shan. Let's go."
*****
Every time the massive loom finished a line, the frames clacked together with a shattering rattle of wood and thread. Nobody sat in front of the machine as it whirred and clattered, and yet the shuttle flew back and forth between the ratcheting threads, producing a broad roll of beautiful silk all on its own.
Nothing else moved in the richly appointed chambers of the house. Tapestries hung, motionless. Huge spools of vari-coloured thread stood in silent rows. Even the hydrangea bushes in the garden seemed frozen in place.
The woman sat at an embroidery table, staring at the unfinished pattern. Dozens of needles, each threaded with a different colour, sat at the ready on racks beside her. Before her chair five dark-clad men knelt, swords held before them, point-first on the hardwood floor.
She spoke.
"They are coming."
*****
"She knows we're coming. Maybe this isn't such a great idea."
Ming-Wa regarded the front door of Pao Hsien's house with gnawing uncertainty. The sun was low in the sky, shining up the length of the mountain valley and casting long shadows across the steep tiled rooftops of Hsiao-pei-ho. Li Fa studied the estate wall before them, seeking for traces of the Shadow Realm that would reveal the presence of sorcery.
"There's no point in trying to trick her," said Fa, "She knows we have to come after her. Anything we try will just let her spend more time setting up. Besides, we have Shan."
They'd spent the afternoon in funeral services for the unfortunate children who'd been subjected to necromantic rites by the Jade Razors. Of course the families were devastated but their children had been missing for days and they had in many cases already assumed the worst. The Goddess' love and guarantee of peace for their souls had eased some portion of their grief, but the town of Hsiao-pei-ho would be a long time healing the terrible betrayal of Pao Hsien.
Fa pounded on the door.
"Pao Hsien! Open up in the name of the Goddess! You will answer for your crimes! Open up!"
The door swung open.
Inside, the click and clatter of a loom underlay the metallic ring of swords clearing their sheaths. A woman laughed.
"It is not I who will answer, misguided fools."
*****
"Hold still, Shan. I can't reach it."
Wei-Yong scrabbled against the high wall at the rear of the estate, trying to grab hold of the top to pull herself over.
"Stretch those skinny legs, girl."
Shan watched with amusement as Wei-Yong grunted and at last got a hold on the top of the wall. She started hauling herself upwards but was unable to make any progress.
"Shan? A little help?"
Chuckling, Shan reached up, planted both of her hands on her friend's backside and shoved.
Wei-Yong shot up into the air and nearly vaulted the wall accidentally. She managed to cling to the narrow top and glared down at the big woman below. Shan was still chuckling. Wei-Yong sneered.
"Let's see you get up here any easier."
Shan backed off across the alley to get a bit of a run at the wall. She paused and whispered up to Wei-Yong.
"Anything going on in there?"
Wei-Yong peered into the dark garden behind the house.
"No, I... Wait, yeah. She's sitting on the verandah out back. She's doing embroidery or something."
"Does she see you?"
"No way. She's... The front door's opening. I can see Fa and Ming-Wa. Shan! There's a whole bunch of swordsmen! She's standing, she. Uh oh."
Shan froze, suddenly frantic with worry.
"What is it?"
"She saw me. She-- "
Wei-Yong's words exploded in a wild shriek as the lanky woman was torn bodily from the top of the wall and sailed right over Shan's head. She plowed straight through the ramshackle wall behind Shan and there was a loud, wince-inducing series of thunks, yelps, crashes and thumps. And then a groan.
Shan stood perfectly still for a second.
"Wei-Yong? Are you okay?"
"Oh, yeah. Fine. I'm just going to lie here for a while. Go get her, Shan. Ouch."
Shan needed no further encouragement. She charged the wall and with a powerful leap, pulled herself to the top and balanced there for just a second, taking in the scene within.
Pao Hsien stood by an embroidery rack, watching the interior of her house where Shan could see Fa raising her hands to cast a spell. Five or six black-clad swordsmen lunged towards the sorceress.
Pao Hsien was laughing.
*****
Ming-Wa and Fa stepped into the house. The interior was broad, just one large room that opened onto the garden beyond. Pao Hsien sat, smiling at them as her sword-wielding minions advanced on the two women.
Long-practiced in working together, Ming-Wa and Fa split up, the older woman heading straight towards Pao Hsien while Ming-Wa made a wide circle around to the left. Fa looked across the garden to where Wei-Yong suddenly appeared. Everything seemed frozen for a second.
Pao Hsien stood and threw out a hand towards Wei-Yong, who disappeared as if yanked backwards out of sight.
"Your Goddess is a demon. A foul creature come to torture and feed on the innocent. She is an abomination, and the Jade Razors will not rest until she is destroyed."
Furious, Ming-Wa pointed an accusing finger.
"You are the abomination! You torture and murder! Innocent children tortured to death, and you dare even SPEAK of the Goddess!"
The young woman lifted her hands and raised her face to the roof above.
"Goddess, in your name I swear this heretic shall die. Tonight."
Her blazing eyes turned to Pao Hsien.
"Die!"
The room exploded in a flurry of action. Five swords whirled in a wild pattern around Fa, who raised her hands and, in a sudden tangle of dark tendrils, chains sprung out of the floor, showering splinters in all directions and wrapping around her attackers.
Ming-Wa sent her mind's searing power into the memories of the blasphemous tailor, bringing forth images of suffering and agony to torture her enemy with. Pao Hsien screamed.
The tailor's hands flew and a half-dozen needles, each threaded with a different colour, shot through the air to drill into Li Fa's body, penetrating her wrists and ankles. With a wild laugh, Pao Hsien yanked on the threads and Fa's body jerked and twisted like a puppet's.
Ming-Wa stared in horror. She'd heard of such things, a secret order of priestesses. The Sisterhood of the Gilded Curtain.
Somehow, her outrage managed to increase. The swordsmen were shrieking as Fa's chains shrank around them, bones snapping and skin tearing, and now Fa's frantic, terrified voice rose above all the others in a scream of terror as her body responding entirely to Pao Hsien's direction.
Wei-Yong had disappeared without a trace and there was no sign of Shan. Li Fa stepped awkwardly towards where Ming-Wa stood.
"Get out, Ming-Wa. Save yourself."
Fa gasped as Pao Hsien yanked on the threads and twisted her body painfully. The tailor and Ming-Wa regarded each other.
"Your Goddess, Ming-Wa, brings nothing but terror and death. Even if you strike me down here, you will come to see, as I have, that you serve the greater darkness."
"Greater than the murder and torture of children? You dog!"
"Yes, Ming-Wa. Greater than I. The Goddess is evil beyond what you can conceive. She will consume us all."
"You lie."
"You'll never know, Zheng Ming-Wa. You will die now and your Goddess shall fall. Tianguo will be free."
"No."
Ming-Wa stood, feet planted, fists clenched at her side, ignoring Li Fa as her helpless friend came lurching towards her. With a shudder of her slender body, Ming-Wa again sent her mind stabbing deep into Pao Hsien's memories.
The tailor fell to her knees, groaning, as Ming-Wa's will forced agony upon agony into her consciousness.
"You carry the darkness within you, Pao Hsien. With your own memories I will destroy you."
The tailor let go of Fa's threads and reached out towards the spools beside her. More needles glinted there.
"It is I who will destroy you, foolish girl."
"If there's any destroying to be done, I'll take care of that."
Pao Hsien looked up in disbelief as Shan raised her sword.
Different cuts served different purposes. Shan was a master of the sword and knew how to cut using only her wrists, for when the enemy was too close for proper handling. She could cut using her arms and shoulders, when caught in a sitting position. For more powerful cuts, of course, her cuts used the abdomen, the hips, and even the legs to drive her sword in an irresistible arc through her enemy's body.
When she cut Pao Hsien completely in half, Shan had the distinct sensation that even her toes were helping to propel her sword.
There was a quick spray of blood, and Shan stood there, frozen, her sword pointing out to her left, as to her right, Pao Hsien gasped, clutched at her stomach, and fell to the floor in two pieces and a flopping pile of entrails.
For a couple of seconds, nobody moved. Then Shan produced a cloth and wiped it down the length of her sword. Fa collapsed to the floor, blood pouring from the wounds at her limbs.
Shan took a step towards Ming-Wa, but the look on her friend's face stopped her. At first she looked down at herself, but realised that Ming-Wa was looking past her.
Behind her.
A woman's voice chuckled. Not Pao Hsien. Dark, deep and hoarse, as though coming up from some deep underground tomb.
"Shan! Behind you!"
The big woman started to whirl when a sudden searing pain tore at her kidneys. Shan looked down to see well over a foot of steel, a broad gleaming blade, protruding from her front. As she watched, three trickles of blood made their way down the blade.
She tried to speak and her mouth filled with blood. She realised she was on her knees, shuddering uncontrollably. A sick, abbattoir noise and the blade withdrew with a sudden gout of blood. Shan crashed to the floor next to the corpse of Pao Hsien. She'd never even seen her attacker.
Ming-Wa had. And now she stared, aghast, at her two friends motionless around her, and at the tall, freakishly armoured figure standing before her.
It was a woman, well over six feet tall, in baroque armour detailed to resemble demonic features, with points and spines jutting out from out all over. She held a mammoth two-handed blade in her hands. The lower half of the blade was dark with Shan's blood.
She'd risen as Ming-Wa had watched from the shadow of Pao Hsien's corpse, as though rising from a trapdoor in the floor, and without hesitation had rammed her huge sword right through Shan's body.
Now the strongest, most durable woman Ming-Wa had ever known lay bleeding and helpless at her feet, struck down with one blow.
The strange woman smiled.
"Thank you for striking down my mistress. With your deaths I will be free of this servitude."
"What?"
Shan moaned quietly. Ming-Wa backed away several quick steps and threw her mind's power into tearing apart the creature's memories.
The smile disappeared and the shadowy woman charged forward.
*****
Wei-Yong groaned. She lay in a cloud of dust, tangled among debris and what looked like the remains of a bed frame. It had been as though a giant hand had swatted her off the top of the wall like she might knock aside a mouse. She groaned again, and set about untangling herself.
She could hear shouts and screams and applied herself more energetically. Within moments she stood, looking around at the interior of some kind of storeroom. A door creaked open and a wide-eyed face peered in. Wei-Yong smiled.
"Sorry about the noise. We're trying to kill the tailor next door. Excuse me."
She pushed past the startled homeowner and raced back across the alley. This time, she was able to leap up and pull herself over the wall without help.
Her shock at the scene beyond didn't stop her from jumping down into the garden and racing for her fallen friend.
"Shan! Shan!"
Ignoring everything else, Wei-Yong checked her friend frantically. Shan had suffered a terrible wound and was losing blood in a terrible flow. Wei-Yong got her lying flat and applied a tight bandage to staunch as much of the bleeding as she could, applying some unguents she had and providing the wounded woman with a sip of water. She looked over where the strange armoured woman advanced on Ming-Wa.
Her bow came up and Wei-Yong sent a rain of arrows punching through the bizarre armour. The swordswoman turned and charged her.
Ming-Wa followed as Wei-Yong scrambled back, dodging the lightning swings of the shadowy woman's blade. Again Ming-Wa reached out with her mind, but she couldn't find a strong hold on the creature's memories. Only vague images came up to her, indistinct and wavering.
The huge sword licked out and caught Wei-Yong across her back. Ming-Wa cried out as Wei-Yong shrieked and threw herself to the floor. Blood was everywhere as the three women ran across the house, dodging corpses and torn floorboards.
Too late Ming-Wa realised the woman had spun and now it was her turn to throw herself to the floor as that silvery blade buzzed overhead. For a second Ming-Wa thought she'd dodged the attack, but a wicked reverse cut found her unprepared and steel bit at Ming-Wa's hip.
She felt the blade strike home against her, bang off her pelvic bone and tear free, sending blood spraying with a hiss and a spatter on the floor. Unable to stand, Ming-Wa crashed down, screaming in agony. She heard Wei-Yong curse and the twang of her bow, arrows thudding home, and she flipped over onto her back, ignoring the hot slick pain in her hip.
The swordswoman had turned away from her and now advanced again on Wei-Yong, who looked calm and unruffled as she sent arrow after arrow buzzing into her enemy's body. The metallic ring as each arrowhead penetrated the armour plates was for a second the loudest sound in the room.
Ming-Wa put pain and the fear of death from her mind. She reached out again, taking hold of the shadowy woman's mind. She tore at the memories within, searching for pain and agony that she could call forth to destroy her foe.
"Goddess preserve us. Goddess preserve us. Goddess preserve us."
The woman's mind was strange, murky, and Ming-Wa felt a touch of madness enter her as she clawed at insubstantial shreds of reason. Somewhere in here lurked pain. Fear. Weakness.
Wei-Yong scrambled backwards. She started hurling curses at her implacable enemy, imitating Shan's creative obscenities as best she could.
"Suck on Her Holy..."
Ming-Wa found what she was looking for. A core of memory, carefully shielded. She took hold with her mind and yanked. And yanked again. And rubbed that ancient pain in this creature's mental face.
The sword fell to the floor with an unnaturally heavy clunk. The woman didn't scream as Pao Hsien had. She turned to Ming-Wa and, shaking, removed her helmet.
Ming-Wa's breath caught. Before her stood a beautiful young woman, pale and with huge black eyes so full of misery and suffering the Angel felt horrified at what she'd done.
"Thank you. It is over."
The woman collapsed in a clatter of metal, and then vanished as shadowy arms seemed to reach out of the floor and drag her straight down.
Ming-Wa and Wei-Yong stared at each other over the empty space where the woman had fallen. Ming-Wa managed to catch enough breath to speak.
"You're just not as good at swearing as Shan."
"Practice."
*****
Bandaged, exhausted, but standing on their own, the Angels watched as Pao Hsien's house burned. The townspeople cheered, vindictive and furious in their grief, but the Angels were silent.
Ming-Wa remembered the words of Pao Hsien, and, to her own shame, she felt the stirrings of doubt.
Fa broke the silence. Her voice was hushed, lacking its usual commanding tone.
"We need to know more about the Jade Razors. We got lucky this time."
Shan remembered looking down at the floor and knowing, with awful certainty, that she was about to die. She swallowed and looked over at Fa.
"We need to rest, Fa. None of us is going anywhere soon."
Wei-Yong didn't speak. She stared at the fire, ignoring the others, her usually cheerful face drawn and tight.
Ming-Wa took a deep breath.
"Goddess preserve us."
"Goddess preserve us."
"Goddess preserve us."
The fire roared higher.